This is what happened to Oliver before he was taken to Odenton Veterinary Hospital and “euthanized”

Introduction: this is an account of the story about Oliver, the elderly cat unnecessarily euthanized at Odenton Veterinary Hospital, from an entirely different perspective. The author lives in the neighborhood where Oliver lived and has first hand knowledge of what happened. It is fascinating and provides much needed extra information. My thanks to Miss Dee. I decided that her story is credible and worth publishing. I have blanked out (redacted) some personal details in the interests of privacy. [Admin].

Domestic cat bit veterinary technician at clinic and was immediately “euthanized”

By Miss Dee

The people who live in the neighborhood where Oliver was taken from learned about what happened to him from this website. I have lived in this Beechfield neighborhood in southwest Baltimore for 13 years and know most of the people from walking my dog, so let me set the record straight. Oliver’s owners are Leroy and Kathy Wright who live at XXXX. White pages list their numbers as XXXXXX and XXXXXX (redacted by Admin). They neglected and abandoned that cat years ago and left him outside 24/7 in all kinds of weather just like many other people in this neighborhood have abandoned their cats.

Oliver was a domesticated cat and used to being around people. He was friendly and liked to be petted. He did not have rabies, and he never bit nobody here. None of the stray cats in this neighborhood have rabies, but some of them are feral.

A few weeks ago, a lady who lives around the corner in the 500 block of Queensgate Rd. called Kaitlin Neal to come and get some stray kittens. After that, Kaitlin began setting metal cat traps around this neighborhood. She talked to some of the people who live here and told them what she was doing. She said she worked at some animal shelter in Severn MD and she be giving her name and phone number (410-269-3081) to people telling them to call her about getting rids of the cats. She told these people that she puts the kittens up for adoption and finds them good homes and that she has the adult cats spayed and then returns them to the neighborhood. She also said she has caught about a dozen cats here.

I looked her up and found online that she some manager of a place called House With a Heart Senior Dog Sanctuary in Severn at this link http://www.capitalgazette.com/lifestyle/pets/ph-ac-cn-senior-dog-sanctuary-1016-20161015-story.html; Also calls itself Senior Dog Sanctuary. She on Facebook and list her email as kaitlin.neal@sdsanctuary.com.

There are several people who live in Beechfield who are retired and home all day, and they see everything that happens and they have been talking about it. They saw Kaitlin come several time in her blue car last two or three weeks to set up and collect the cat traps. Kaitlin may think she has good intentions, but her methods are not proper and illegal. Neighbors said they saw her putting the cat traps behind a blue dumpster that sits at the end of a small parking lot in the alley behind the 553-541 block of South Wickham Rd. The other side of the alley is the 514-528 block of Queensgate. Kaitlin was breaking the law because she set up this trap on private property. The dumpster and parking lot are on land owned by the company that manages the Williston Street Townhouse apartment complex. Their office number is 410-646-1616. Kaitlin did not get their permission to put her traps on their property. You can look up these address on Google maps and see the alley for yourself.

Some people let her put the cages on their property but others didn’t. One lady that lives in the same block as the Wright family let her put one on her porch and in her backyard. I was walking my dog last Sunday morning and saw this little cat trapped in the one on the porch. He was violently banging himself around in that metal contraption and there was no way to get him out because it was locked tight.

There’s an elderly lady who live on this block and feed the stray cats, and she told me she saw Kaitlin one evening last trying jiggling the lock and chain on her backyard gate to see if she could get in and set a trap in her backyard. Kaitlin didn’t even ask this lady for permission to come on her property.

I told this lady about the little cat trapped in the cage on her neighbor’s porch on Sunday, and she said she saw it and thought it was cruel. She also told that she has fed Oliver for years, and that he was a nice old cat.

In fact, Oliver was on this lady’s front porch when Kaitlin on Aug. 1 lured him down with a can of cat food she put on the pavement step to the woman’s house. This is the picture that is posted above of Oliver on the sidewalk—the picture that Kaitlin took of Oliver before she grabbed him and put him in a cage. She again broke the law because she was trespassing on this lady’s property without her permission. The Wright family who live a few doors down saw her doing it. They told Kaitlin they owned Oliver, which is why Kaitlin knew the cat’s name, and asked her what she was doing. She said she would take him to a vet, then bring him back. They didn’t care about Oliver anyway, so they let her take him, but the wife told Kaitlin to give her the name and number of the vet so they could check on him.

Next day on Aug. 2 in the late afternoon neighbors say they saw Kaitlin come again and set up traps. One behind the blue dumpster in the alley, one in somebody’s backyard, and one on the same persons front porch. The old lady who feeds the cats told me she went outside to ask Kaitlin what she is doing with the cats, and she told her the same thing—that she gets homes for the kittens and has the older ones spayed and returns them to the neighborhood. She also told her that she took Oliver to a vet and he was in bad shape. This elderly lady told her about the little cat trapped in the cage on Sunday on her neighbor’s porch, and that it was cruel, and she told Kaitlin to bring back Oliver because he belonged to someone on the block and he was a nice old cat. At no time did Kaitlin say that the vet in Odenton MD where she took Oliver had already put him down the day before. She lied to this woman.

She also lied to people because she said she returned the adult cats after they were spayed, but none of those cats were returned to the neighborhood. She lied to the people at the Odenton animal hospital by telling them Oliver was a stray and had no owner because she knew the Wright family was the owner.

After that elderly lady confront Kaitlin about what she was doing with the cats on Aug. 2, Kaitlin has not been seen in the neighborhood since. She came back either later that night or very early the next morning to pick up the traps so nobody would see her.

Like I said, people in this neighborhood just found out what happened to Oliver on this website. The old lady told me on last Friday evening that she asked the cat’s owner if Kaitlin brought Oliver back yet, but he said no. So even though Kaitlin and the Odenton animal hospital knew that he was dead, they never contacted his owner.

Kaitlin is right that Oliver was let down first and foremost by his owners. People get cute kittens for their kids all the time around here, but throw them out of the house when they get big or leave them behind when they move away, and the Wrights are no exception. They are to blame the most for their heartlessness.

But Kaitlin is to blame as well, coming into this neighborhood to trap cats by luring them into cages with cans of food where they get stuck for an entire day in the extreme heat here lately or all night till she came to get them. She broke the law by trespassing on private property without getting permission to capture the cats. She can’t be forgiven for lying to everybody that she was going to return the adult cats once they were spayed, because she had no intention of doing this. She lied to the vet about not knowing Oliver’s owner. She lied to people in the neighborhood about Oliver when she knew that he was already put down by the vet. She right not to come back here and show her face in this neighborhood for lying and not telling the cat’s owner about his death.

The Odenton animal hospital is to blame for putting down Oliver claiming that he might have rabies. All vets and technicians that work at animal hospitals must have rabies vaccinations. That a legal requirement. Of course a cat is going to get upset when people start to manhandle him after he’s been held locked in some metal cage. But they didn’t have to kill him. Oliver didn’t deserve none of this.

Update: This is Kaitlin’s version provided in a message to me on FB:

“I trapped this cats as a service to the community and first and foremost for the good of the cats. I have fixed, vaccinated, dewormed, applied flea preventatives AND RERELEASED over a dozen cats in this community on my own dime. The cats are rereleased in the same spot they were caught the day following their surgery per instruction of the veterinarian. I don’t do this for my health, or because I find it fun, simply for the good of the cats and the community. I document every cat with photos and paperwork. Never has a cat been left in a trap during the heat of the day, the traps are checked every 1-2 hours and only used at nighttime/early morning when it is cool.

I set traps on the properties of people who gave me permission to do so. I had neighbors in the community watching the traps. I live over 30 mins from this area and was only helping for the good of the cats while using my own funds. Because of your writing I will now stop helping the cats and instead I’ll call the county to come out and finish the job. The county has strict protocols and any cat with a wound of unknown origin will be in danger of euthanasia, which is why I tried to help myself to begin with. I am saddened for the cats but because false information is being spread I am being harassed and I am putting my families safety first.”